Introduction Patricia Piccinini’s artistic practice spans across many mediums, including installation art, paint- ing, sculpture, video and photography. Her sub- ject matter lingers on the underlying themes of genetics and mutation, and consequently life it- self, which she has explored consistently since she began working professionally as an artist. One of her first works, Lump (The Mutant Ge- nome Project), 1994, dealt with the themes of normality and abnormality as perceived through media and medical culture after the launch of the “Human Genome Project” in 1993. Though it is often thought her works are based on her in- terest in science, she has said; “It is not really science itself that I am interested in, as much as how it impacts on people. I think my creatures… are chimeras that I construct in order to tell stories that explain the world I live in but cannot totally understand or control.” A Case Study PATRICIA PICCININI The Long Awaited, 2008 Silicone, fibreglass, human hair, leather, plywood,clothes The Stags, 2008 Fibreglass, auto paint, leather, steel, plastic, tyres Patricia Piccinini is an Australian arst who was born in Sierra Leone in 1965. She created her first hyper -real silicone sculpture in 2001 (“SO2”), for the Melbourne Fesval at Melbourne Zoo. THE ARTIST
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Introduction
Patricia Piccinini’s artistic practice spans across
many mediums, including installation art, paint-
ing, sculpture, video and photography. Her sub-
ject matter lingers on the underlying themes of
genetics and mutation, and consequently life it-
self, which she has explored consistently since
she began working professionally as an artist.
One of her first works, Lump (The Mutant Ge-
nome Project), 1994, dealt with the themes of
normality and abnormality as perceived through
media and medical culture after the launch of
the “Human Genome Project” in 1993. Though it
is often thought her works are based on her in-
terest in science, she has said;
“It is not really science itself that I am interested
in, as much as how it impacts on people. I think
my creatures… are chimeras that I construct in
order to tell stories that explain the world I live in
but cannot totally understand or control.”
A Case Study
PATRICIA PICCININI
The Long Awaited, 2008
Silicone, fibreglass, human hair, leather, plywood,clothes
The Stags, 2008
Fibreglass, auto paint, leather, steel, plastic, tyres
Patricia Piccinini is an Australian
artist who was born in Sierra Leone
in 1965. She created her first hyper
-real silicone sculpture in 2001
(“SO2”), for the Melbourne Festival
at Melbourne Zoo.
THE ARTIST
Skywhale, 2013
Nylon, polyester, nomex, hyperlast, cable
Artwork Analysis #2
Subjective Frame: Skywhale is, at first glance, a fantastical giant creature with a com-
placent expression on its face. The reactions to the balloon were quite varied, with
some people finding the creature repulsive due to its pendulous breasts and others
finding the creature’s odd appearance intriguing. The sculpture is reminiscent of a sea
cow, or another gentle female mammal, and the breasts remind viewers of the fertility
of the creature, making it seem more motherly than intimidating. When creating the
artwork, Piccinini said she “ wanted to create something ‘wonderful’, in the sense of a
thing that invokes a sense of wonder. Something ‘remarkable’ in the sense that you
might remark on it.”
Cultural Frame: This artwork was created for the Centenary Celebrations in Canber-
ra, and it was commissioned by the government at the time. Piccinini was given no
limitations as for what she wanted to make, only that it had to be a balloon. The art-
work became a controversial topic in politics, with ACT Leader of the Opposition Jere-
my Hanson, having said ‘I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It’s an embarrass-
ing indulgence only a fourth term government would contemplate.’
Structural Frame: Skywhale is coloured to look like a real-life animal, with pinkish
flesh and a green-hued back that resembles a shell. The fan-like tail at the back of the
creature has small claws protruding from each section, and the creature has ten pen-
dulous breasts hanging down the sides of it. The viewer’s eye is drawn immediately to
the breasts of the creature, which were intended to highlight Skywhale’s maternal na-
ture, because they make up such a large portion of the sculpture.
Postmodern Frame: The sculpture is postmodern in the sense that it is outside of
what could be considered as ‘mainstream art’, due to the medium it was created in (a
hot air balloon), and the subject matter. A sea-cow that floats in the sky could hardly
be considered classical art, and it challenges the social/cultural notion of what can and
cannot exist in the animal kingdom.
“It's hard to know where
ideas come from, they just
happen. An idea usually
ferments for a while - years
even - and sometimes it just
melts away, but sometimes
it grows bones and wants to
walk.”
Big Mother, 2005
Silicone, fibreglass, polyurethane,
leather, human hair
Artwork Analysis #1
Subjective: In the sculpture, Big Mother, Piccinini is trying to portray the fragile and gentle nature of
the baboon-like creature as it nurtures a baby that it will never truly be able to call it’s own. The main
figure in the sculpture is very obviously a mother figure, as implied by her breast-feeding of the hu-
man child. The creature has a very human face and the viewer empathises with the creature’s situa-
tion, mainly because of its human attributes. Piccinini said about conveying empathy in the sculp-
ture; “I try to address ethical questions, but through emotion and empathy... especially in regards to
issues like biotech or GE .”
Cultural: The sculpture is related to Piccinini’s long-running interest in medicine, genetic engineer-
ing and biotechnology, and looks to be a hybrid between a baboon, human, and other unidentified
species. The sculpture was created around the same time that chimps were found to be the closest
living relatives to humans, and so that discovery increased the viewer’s capacity to understand and
empathise with the emotion shown on the creature’s face.
Structural: The sculpture is life-size, though it may feel larger than life because it is often displayed
on a raised platform, making the viewer feel as though the creature is somehow removed from socie-
ty, even though it is so close to use. The human features of the creature, namely the emotion-filled
eyes and breasts that are capable of nurturing a human child, also make the viewer empathise with
the creature because we recognise these features as being common in our society. The sculpture is
created to be hyper-real, and the process behind creating a sculpture to that degree of realism in-
volves multiple layers of silicon being melded over a skeleton (in a material of the artist’s choice) and
painted. Human hairs are inserted into tiny holes in the silicon to create an even more realistic look.
Postmodern: Like Skywhale, this sculpture can also be considered through the postmodern frame
because it cannot be considered classical art and it again challenges what can and cannot exist inside
of the animal kingdom.
The Mutant Genome Project
Material Practice
Patricia Piccinini works through external fabricators, such as Rapid Prototyping (who cre-
ated the framework of Piccinini’s work The Strength of One Arm (2009)), to create the
frames of her artworks before they are returned to her and she works closely with staff in
rendering the frame with silicon and hair. With all her sculptures and artworks, she
sketches the idea in incredible detail before the idea is sent off for fabrication. In the case
of Skywhale (2013), she sketched the sculpture before it was sent to the hot air balloon
manufacturers. The manufacturers then worked with Piccinini in creating a scaled-down
mould of the creature using cardboard and sticky tape, which was used as a reference to
then create the hot-air balloon. My material practice is not dissimilar to Patricia Piccin-
ini’s, with the main inconsistency being that I don’t have people to help me make my
sculptures. Mirroring her, my sculpture/s begin with a skeleton, which is then covered in a
flesh-like material. Though her sculptures’ skeletons are made from ABS (Acrylonitrile
Butadiene Styrene) and mine from aluminium foil, it’s the same principal. We are also both
interesting in hyper-realism in our sculptures.
Material process for Skywhale
Prone, 2011
Conceptual Framework
Part of Piccinini’s conceptual practice draws on the scientific and medical advancements of the time,
as well as stories from family and friends. Her Lump (The Mutant Genome Project) (1994) was direct-
ly inspired by Human Genome Project that was launched in 1993. Similarly reflecting happenings in
her life, Piccinini’s sculpture Big Mother (2005) was inspired by a tale she heard from a friend at a
party about a child being taken by a baboon whose own infant had died. Piccinini is able to take
events from both her personal life and world news to refine her concepts and ideas, whilst keeping a
theme constant; life and genetics. I’d like to think that in my work I’m able to show as much dedica-
tion to an idea as she does, but at this point in time it seems unlikely.
I looked into Piccinini’s work because her material practice was similar to mine, but on closer obser-
vation of her conceptual practice, I’ve found that we’re both interested in genetics and human life,
though my interest in these areas may not show through as well in my artwork.
The Listener, 2013
Conceptual Framework
World: Patricia Piccinini’s work has existed in the timeframe of the late nineteen-nineties up until
the present, and her art references events within this time period. Namely, her artworks reflect the
scientific and medical advancements made regarding human life during this period of time. The sci-
entific forays into unlocking the secrets of DNA, and the following utilisation of those discoveries to
manipulate genes, had been at the forefront of the news when Piccinini’s work was starting out. The
ideas of what was and was not acceptable to experiment with were stretched as scientists began
splicing species together. The rise of postmodernism in the 1980s allowed for artists to delve into
more radical subject matters in their works and also allowed for more freedom in terms of how art-
works were made. It was increasingly common for artists not to make their own works, but rather